Backes leads Bruins to victory over Coyotes

Friday

Dec 8, 2017 at 12:51 AMDec 8, 2017 at 12:56 AM

In the fourth game of his early return from surgery, Bruins winger David Backes scored two critical goals to help the B's run away from Coyotes, 6-1.

BOSTON – David Backes still isn’t even supposed to be playing. When the Bruins forward underwent surgery on Nov. 2 to remove a portion of his colon and chase a recurring case of diverticulitis, the prognosis was for him to miss eight weeks.

Remarkably, he returned to the lineup on Nov. 29. And fortunately for the Bruins, he played David Backes hockey – heavy, straight ahead, no frills – when the B’s needed it most on Thursday night at TD Garden.

In his fourth game back since his surgery, Backes scored twice in the last 6:06 of the second period to break a 1-1 tie and spark a 6-1 victory over the Coyotes in a game that would have been terrible to lose: Coming off Monday’s 5-3 loss at Nashville, the B’s had a chance to bounce back against the worst team in the Western Conference, which the Bruins happened to have defeated in their last 11 meetings.

But for a long time after Brad Marchand opened the scoring just 15 seconds into the game, the B’s played like they weren’t very interested in winning.

“I think we thought it was going to be easy there for a while,” coach Bruce Cassidy said, “and we paid a price.”

Backes, with help from linemates Riley Nash (two assists) and rookie winger Danton Heinen (one goal), made sure the Bruins didn’t get gouged. Starting with a strong shift halfway through the second period, they brought energy to a lineup Cassidy was thinking about shaking up.

“We certainly thought about throwing (the line combinations) in the blender in the second period,” said Cassidy. “But I thought tonight was a night we should try to work through it, get the lines to work through it … and we eventually did.”

Backes’ first goal of his injury-interrupted season, scored with 6:06 left in the second period, was the perfect way for the 1-1 to be broken – a deflection of Nash’s shot past Scott Wedgewood that showed the rest of the Bruins that dirty goals were the way to go.

“I’m glad we scored that type of goal,” Cassidy said, “because I think we were missing that element in our game halfway through the first period and early in the second. To get one that way was good.”

“Their line got us going in the second,” said goalie Tuukka Rask, whose 19-save performance gave him three straight wins after four straight losses. “Everybody followed after. Great leading by example.”

It also showed Backes that his tried-and-true methods, which resulted in four 20-goal seasons and a pair of 30-goal campaigns while in St. Louis, still work.

“Contributing offensively is a good feeling,” said Backes, who only reached 17 goals as a first-year Bruin last season. “That’s not lost on me.

“But I have always been one who has trusted in the process – trusted in playing hard, playing the right way, and knowing results come from that.”

Backes went on to give the B’s a two-goal lead in the final minute of the second period by stealing a puck from Coyotes defenseman Alex Goligoski and beating Wedgewood on a breakaway with a low wrist shot. The five-goal onslaught carried into the third period with goals from David Krejci (5-on-3 power play), Heinen and rookie winger Anders Bjork.

Marchand made it 1-0 at the 15-second mark, stretching his points streak to four games on his 10th goal of the year, with assists from linemates David Pastrnak (seven-game points streak) and Patrice Bergeron (three-game streak). The lead stood until Brandon Carlo’s giveaway turned into a breakaway goal for Coyotes foward Christian Dvorak with 2:53 left in the first.

Backes’ goals took heat off the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line – and not for the last time, he hopes.

“Over time, I’ll get my looks, I’ll get my opportunities,” he said “It’ll go in eventually – typically in bunches. Hopefully this is the beginning of a big bunch.”

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